Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Pets anyone?

I have some new pets.

Now keep in mind that I’m not the traditional dog/cat kind of person. We have two outdoor cats – allergies keep them in their proper place outside the home. I'd have a cat in the house in a flash, but husband and some kids would be miserable.

We’ve had dogs over the years. According to the experts, having a dog can build character in your children. Ours always tend to die or get killed; the last one was a barker and went to the SPCA. So I’ve found that worms make the greatest pets. No fuss; no muss. They mind their own business and produce fertilizer to boot. How can you go wrong?

But just when I thought that worms headed the list as the go-to pet, along came kefir grains. My kefir grains came dehydrated through the mail. A quick 24 hour soak-in-water later they were plumped up and ready to do my bidding.

It took about a week of regular 24 hour milk changes, but now those grains are producing a luscious, creamy, tangy milk kefir. I don’t know that it’s that much different than the product that came from the store-bought starter. But using the grains is so cool! Each morning I strain the baby grains out of the kefir and add them to a mason jar of fresh milk. That jar sits on the counter till the next morning, when I do it over again.

Right now I’m making just enough to drink in one day with a little extra for guests J. (Yes, I’m the only one in the house that enjoys this healthy drink) Apparently the grains continue to grow, so just like my worms, at a certain point I should have grains to share. Any takers? J

Lots of knitting has been going on, but the only finished project is a crocheted dishcloth. Having made many knitted dishcloths over the last few years, I had a bag of leftover cotton yarn on hand. Experiment time. Most crocheted dishcloths are too stiff for my liking. So I tried a granny square one for a change and actually quite like the prototype. It looks nice, works well and dries quicker than the others. So I’ll make more of them. Doesn’t this one match my dishtowel well? Purely accidental.

2 comments:

Well guess what!? I forgot to tell you that Aneta gave me some kefir starter. I drank some at her house - I have to say that I just about didn't get the second swallow down. BUT now that I have my own, I started out small - 1/2 cup with 1 tsp of maple syrup and it goes down pretty easy. I will have work up to drinking it straight up. You two will be the death of me yet! =)